BRIXTON heavyweight Dillian Whyte deserves a big fight. He racked up wins over Lucas Browne, Joseph Parker and Dereck Chisora in 2018 and is ranked number one with the WBC. He rightly considered him well placed. He turned down a shot at unified champion Anthony Joshua as the WBC had ordered an Interim title fight between Whyte and Dominic Breazeale while world titlist Deontay Wilder was in negotiations for a Tyson Fury rematch. When those discussions stalled Breazeale stepped in suddenly as a Wilder’s mandatory challenger, leaving Whyte out in the cold.
โI mean forget the Breazeale mandatory stuff, how he’s even there I don’t know. But when you order Breazeale-Whyte before the actual order for Fury against Wilder, Fury pulls out, Breazeale being the mandatory slots in, understand, you can’t then say to Whyte, ‘Okay mate you crack on.’ Because he turned down opportunities because he had that fight and I believe he [Whyte] should just be made mandatory to the winner of Breazeale-Wilder. I appreciate there might be a bout in between, there might be a Joshua bout but Dillian’s going to box in July anyway. So let him box in July but at least make him mandatory for the next slot. Thatโs what weโre campaigning for,โ promoter Eddie Hearn said.
Hearn, his lawyers, the WBCโs lawyers and WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman met for a mediation on Saturday. โWhat weโre hoping is that everyone can be sensible,โ the promoter said. โThere was a mediation, was their official terminology. There’s a process that you have to go through. We’ve put our request forward, and it will be heard by the WBC governors over the next two weeks. We’ll get decision around that time.
โWhat Dillian is saying is I could have boxed Anthony Joshua. I could have made $8 million or whatever I could have made, but I was told I had this opportunity by you and now Iโve not got it.โ
Whyte is expected to box in July in the UK, with Luis Ortiz, Alexander Povetkin and WBA โregularโ titlist Manuel Charr in the frame. The WBC could potentially grant him some sort of belt to box for, maybe even the Interim strap that he didnโt get to box Breazeale for, or perhaps they could create a โDiamondโ strap for him.
However US promoter Top Rank, whose shows are televised on ESPN, have approached the ย Londoner. Hearn insists that Matchroom wonโt hold Whyte back. โItโs always been a fight by fight [basis] so nothingโs changed. Thereโs an offer for him to box in America, which weโre looking at together, a good offer and if he wants to do it, I donโt have a problem with that. Heโs told us heโs boxing in July in the UK, thatโs what he wants to do,โ Hearn said. โNothingโs changed with us and Dillian, weโre fight by fight, we hope we continue that relationship, weโve done a great job for him, heโs made a lot of money, but itโs an interesting time for the heavyweight division. I wonโt hold anyone back. If a life changing opportunity comes along for Dillian Whyte Iโll support him 100 percent.โ